WJB Capital Group Announces Hiring of Four Equity Research Analysts

NEW YORK, Dec. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- WJB Capital Group, Inc. (WJB), a privately held institutional broker-dealer and a Member of the NYSE, FINRA, SIPC, and other principal exchanges, today announced the hiring of four Equity Research Analysts, which will serve to increase the breadth and depth of its existing franchise. Over the past two months, WJB Capital has welcomed the following Analysts: in Healthcare, John Newman, Co-Head of Healthcare Research,  Director - Biotech & Specialty Pharmaceuticals; in Consumer, Bryan Maher, Director - Lodging, Gaming, & Leisure; and in Technology, Arnab Chanda, Director - Semiconductors and A.B. Mendez, Vice President - Internet & Social Media.

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"We chose to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by the difficult market environment when we hired our leading Technical Strategist, John Roque.  Fortunately and unfortunately, 2011 is providing growing, entrepreneurial firms like ours the opportunity to add more high quality talent to strengthen our product offering for our customers.  As the number of buy- and sell-side Research Analysts continues to shrink in the face of difficult conditions, we believe firms that offer a high quality, idea focused research product will be rewarded in the marketplace.  Today's announcement demonstrates our commitment to that strategy," said Craig Rothfeld, CEO of WJB Capital Group.

Bringing on John Newman reinforces WJB Capital's commitment to the Healthcare sector, complementing Josh Zable and Ethan Roth in Medical Products & Services. He was most recently a Senior Analyst at Citadel Securities, LLC in New York where he covered seventeen Biotech/Specialty Pharmaceuticals companies. Prior to Citadel, John was a Senior Analyst at Oppenheimer in the Biotech/Specialty Pharmaceuticals sector and an Associate at Merrill Lynch covering Biotechnology. John has a BS in Chemistry from Loyola University Chicago and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Maryland.

WJB Capital continues to build out its expertise in the consumer sector with the addition of Bryan Maher. In his sixteen years on Wall Street, Bryan has been recognized in the Wall Street Journal's "Best on the Street" survey and was named one of the four "Most Trustworthy Analysts on Wall Street" by Money. Prior to joining WJB, Bryan was most recently the Senior Lodging, Gaming, & Leisure Analyst at Citadel Securities. Prior to Citadel, Bryan was the Senior Lodging, Gaming, & Leisure Analyst at Collins Stewart. Before Collins Stewart, Bryan developed RBC's Investment Banking presence in the U.S. Lodging, Gaming and Leisure industries; founded Maher Asset Management, a sector-specialized hedge fund investing in lodging, gaming and leisure companies; was the Senior Lodging, Gaming & Leisure Analyst at Calyon Securities/Credit Lyonnais; and was an Associate Analyst with Deutsche Bank Alex.Brown. Bryan has also worked for Dean Witter Reynolds as a National Closed-End Fund Coordinator and as a Financial Operations Analyst for the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City.

WJB furthers its commitment to fundamental research in the Technology, Media, and Telecom sectors with the hires of Arnab Chanda, Semiconductors, and A.B. Mendez, Internet and Social Media to complement the TMT sector strategy work of Michael Neiberg.

Arnab brings fifteen years of experience in the TMT industry to WJB Capital. Most recently Arnab was a Senior Research Analyst focused on the Electronics Sector at ROTH Capital Partners. Prior to joining ROTH, he worked at Deutsche Bank as Director and Senior Research Analyst covering communications and digital media semiconductor companies. Prior to that, he was Senior Vice President and Senior Research Analyst covering communications and digital media semiconductor companies at Lehman Brothers and a research analyst covering EDA and digital media IC companies at Robertson Stephens. He began his career as an analyst in Robertson Stephens' Technology investment banking group. He was a member of Lehman Brothers' Institutional Investor-ranked Semiconductor research team from 2000 to 2003 and was ranked #3 in Communications ICs in the Greenwich Quality Survey in 2006.

A.B. has over 12 years of equity research, consulting, and operational experience in the Internet Media, E-Commerce, and software-as-a-service (SAAS) sectors. Prior to joining WJB Capital, A.B. was a Senior Analyst at GreenCrest Capital performing in-depth primary research on private companies in the social media and social commerce verticals. Prior to joining GreenCrest he was a Senior Equities Analyst at Twin Red Asset Management where he followed companies across a range of industries and constructed a portfolio of long and short positions in equities and options. Prior to that A.B. was an Internet equity research analyst at BofA, FBR, and Thomas Weisel Partners. His operational and entrepreneurial experience includes independent E-Commerce and database consulting, working on multiple Internet startups, and serving as Director of Operations at Web software firm Whiteboard Labs. His coverage of social media and social commerce companies has been featured extensively in the media, including appearances on Bloomberg West, the BBC, BNN (Canada), and the Nightly Business Report and quotations in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Bloomberg, Reuters, and Business Week.

About WJB Capital Group, Inc. (WJB)
WJB Capital Group, Inc. is a privately held institutional broker-dealer and a Member of the NYSE, FINRA, SIPC, and other principal exchanges. Since its founding in 1993, WJB Capital Group has employed a partnership philosophy that focuses on customer-centric trading and execution solutions to the buy side. WJB now offers an extensive suite of global trading and execution services; agency equity and options executions; a dedicated corporate access team; macro, technical, TMT, gaming, lodging & leisure, healthcare, industrials & infrastructure, specialty retail, and REIT research; and comprehensive commission management solutions. WJB operates its own live trading desks for all major U.S. equity and option exchanges as well as in the global market centers of Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, South America, and South Africa. 

SOURCE WJB Capital Group, Inc.